[FIXED] Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server in WordPress

After migrating WordPress Made Easy from GoDaddy to SiteGround WordPress Hosting, I started to write a new post as usual. While trying to add an image to the new post, the upload process failed and this error message appeared:

Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server.

In the beginning, I thought that the cause of the problem might be the lack of permissions on the new server.

I connected to my FTP server using FileZilla and started to check the wp-content/uploads via FTP and I found that the folder of the current month is present.

After that, I thought the cause of the problem may be file permissions as WordPress was unable to write/edit the parent folder, so I changed the permissions via FTP.

However, I still couldn’t upload files to WordPress media library and still getting “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server” error when I try to upload the files even after using another browser to write the new post.

How to solve “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server” error

The cause of this error is that the wp-content/uploads folder does not exist because when I installed WordPress on the old server it automatically extracted the old path for uploads folder.

The old path includes the user account on the server and when I migrated to the new server the username changed so for WordPress the file does not exist.

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To solve this annoying error, you need to change the path of the old uploads folder to the new one. Follow these steps to solve the problem:

1. Log in to your WordPress admin panel (wp-admin).
2. In the left menu go to Settings » Media.
   

   

3. In the Store uploads in this folder field, enter wp-content/uploads and click Save changes.
   

   

4. Now you are done, go and try to upload files to the media library again.

NOTE: make sure that the Store uploads in this folder field contains wp-content/uploads only.

I can’t find the “Store uploads in this folder” field in my Media Settings page?

If you can’t find the field in your media settings page you can solve the problem by adding the following code in your wp-config.php file:

 define( 'UPLOADS', 'wp-content/uploads' );

just above this line:

require_once(ABSPATH . 'wp-settings.php');

And the “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server” error will be fixed.

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For LocalHost Installs (XAMPP)

If you’ve installed WordPress locally, and faces the error message and none of the above solutions fixed your problem.

You may need to reset the ownership of the installation to nobody by doing the following.

1. Run command line/terminal:

• On Mac:
  Applications => Utilities => Terminal
• On Windows:
  Start => Programs => Accessories => Command Prompt

2. Run the following command

After replacing wordpress with your actual WordPress installation directory.

sudo chown -R nobody:staff /applications/xampp/xamppfiles/htdocs/wordpress

Do you still get the “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads…” error message?

If you couldn’t solve the problem and the “Unable to Create Directory wp-content/uploads. Is its Parent Directory Writable by the Server” error message still appearing, let me know by adding a comment below and I will help you to fix the problem.

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